Monday, July 25, 2011

Blackheart Valentine - First issue is written, pitch pages in production. I'd like for this to come out immediately after Luther Strode gets finished in March, but that's entirely dependent on things like getting greenlit.

The Weird Adventures of Jenny Strange - First issue (actually the first three issues) is written, but it's going to need to be overhauled, because the idea for the second issue is MUCH stronger than the idea I originally used for the first issue. So I need to merge the two. Pitch pages are being drawn. Jenny is a bit of a wild card. If she gets picked up, I'll fit this in whereever, We've got a good shot, I think - the comic is funny and cool and the artist has published at Image before.

Red Winter - Rewriting first issue, which I aim to finish today or tomorrow. Artist is attached, pitch pages will start this week. This might slot in after Blackheart Valentine, depending on a lot of things, including getting picked up and the artist's willingness to wait.

Duel - First issue is finished but it sucks donkey balls. So that will need rewritten, Artist is attached, but need to get room n his schedule.

Overthrow - Entire series is written, but I need to find money for the artist, although we both want to go ahead with the project.

Killjoy The Weapon - First issue is written, and an artist is attached, but he's had some recent success, which is awesome but might mean he can't do this.

Depending on the success of Luther Strode, I have two sequel series in mind for that. The series is a complete story on it's own, but I can expand it into a trilogy. So if that happens, we'll see how that fits.

Stuff that is developing, but is further off:

The Professionals - Since this is meant to be ongoing, I'll need to work out whether I can support an ongoing and find an artist who can produce at a consistent rate, Actually, I'd kind of like to have rotating artist teams, as the comic is structured around three issue arcs.

Agents of Fate, Inc - First issue is written. This is a weirder series, and probably a harder sell than most of the others, hence the backburnerness.

Savant - I mentioned this in the last post, and the basic idea is this - a redneck crime kingpun type raises one of his sons to be a perfect killer. The end result is someone who is incredibly good at killing people, but is basically a child mentally. He meets up with a girl whose mother sold her into sex slavery, and she decides that she's going to use him for some much deserved revenge. Gritty crime. Whole series is written, but I'll be starting over from scratch. I'll probably work on this as soon as my schedule opens up some. I like crime stuff, but I'm focusing on stuff that's probably easier to sell, so this will wait until I've developed a fanbase.

Citizen - Political thriller, of sorts, about a living ideology the governmen barely suppressed back in the sixities. Plotted, first issue written, needs rewritten. Hard sell idea, so it's backburnered.

Push - In the future, police are able to temporarily access the memories of the dead to solve crimes. One of the best detectives ends up taking a bad push and gets involved with a huge conspiracy. Sci fi Chinatown. Again, kind of a complex and hard sell, so backburned. Also needs a new name.

Black Sunshine - Big (twelve issues, probably) science fiction noir. Fully plotted, nothing written but some of the text bits for it. Involves a drug that completely stops emotions, a dog and a prostitute infected with the mind of a dead revolutionary, clones, and the downside of unlimited free power. Same issue as the above, but also it's bigger commitment from the publisher and the artist.

Junk - People start merging with their possessions. Body horror/zombie. This was a Zuda entry, and I'd like to revisit it. Might happen sooner rather than later, actually. Speaking of which

Rumors of War - Also a Zuda entry, this time with John Bivens, and I'd like to do it someday if John gets the time and wants to. I only want to do it with him. I actually wrote it for him, and no one else would do.

Puncher - A short story I have about a zombie sport. I actually have a zombie universe that goes with it, but Puncher would make a pretty good one shot. One shots are fairly rough, so this will probably wait until I have a more established following.

Ghost Protocol - You may notice that this is the name of the next Mission Impossible movie, but I was here first. Will need a new name. It's about a retired agent who finds out that there was a project to clone his mind, and that several copies of him (different bodies, but all think they're the orginal) have run amok because the mind cloning process is unstable.

Zero Point - A pair of scientists develop technology that lets them receive message from the future (or rather, it lets them send messages to their past selves - this is actually passed on an actual hypothesis of how time travel might work) but the accuracy is less the further into the future you go and there is a point where nothing can be sent - the zero point. One of the scientists believes that this is the end of mankind, and uses the device to form an organiation to prevent it. The other believes the other one is the cause, and opposes him. Hijinks ensue.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Well, if you scroll up a bit, you'll notice that I talk about a project called Savage Things which, to recap, is about people trained from birth to be living weapons and then getting unleased on the world.

Guess what Ben McCool's PIGS is about. It's not quite the same idea but it's close enough that doing Savage Things is probably a no go. Which is a shame, because I really liked that one. Ah well.

I'll probably replace it with Savant, which is ALSO about someone trained their whole life to be a killer (hey, when you find an idea you like, you stick with it) but is pretty far removed from PIGS or Savage Things.

On the other hand, there are always new ideas to replace the old:

As I was (finally) drifting off to sleep last night, I had this idea. I suspect the news stuff about the last ride of the spqace shuttle might have had something to do with this.

Actually what I had was an image, which was of someone looking up into the night sky and seeing a moon that covered in....something. It looked like it was crawling.

The idea that popped into my head behind it was what if aliens came and decided to colonize the moon. They are powerful, they are here and they aren't talking. They're just there, where no one can ignore them.

What the story would be about, I think, is the idea of people trying to accept and understand this terrifying but not actively malevolent thing, with a sub focus on the idea of being confronted with something truly alien. It's the out of context problem.

The thing is, I don't know that I can write this story, at least not like that. The part that seems linked to the shuttle is the idea that the Moon is right there, but as of right now, we don't really have the means to get there. So there's this thing hanging in the sky like a loaded gun, and we can't do anything about it. So there's a story there about the people scrambling to get to the moon and make first contact.

Now the story I probably can write is about trying to get to the moon and make direct contact with the aliens, where the exposure to an alien presence starts to affect the people assigned to make contact. Something along the lines of The Thing meets Armageddon. But it seems like that's leaving story potential on the table.